


Waffles and brotherly chats at 2am

by Deflateddragon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Ben and Dave are mentioned but don't speak, I can't believe i have to write that ahh please don't ship just let brothers support their brothers, I just wanted some good bois being good bros, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Just some good bois having a chat over their poor food choices at 2am, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Incest, Post-Apocalypse, Sober Klaus, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 23:26:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18020492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deflateddragon/pseuds/Deflateddragon
Summary: “How rude of me!” He spoke cheerfully, gesturing towards the space ahead and flashing his HELLO tattoo “Dearest brother, meet Dave, Dave this is my second favourite sibling Diego, he thinks he’s cool.”“I am cool” Diego huffed, and Klaus giggled away to himself, beaming at where the empty- at Dave.“Dave…as inDaveDave?”Klaus found that very amusing, stifling his grin behind a hand, flashing off his chipping black nails “What other Daves would I be talking to?”





	Waffles and brotherly chats at 2am

The house was dark and silent when Diego finally left the living room, passing by closed off studies and empty cold rooms as he marched towards the kitchen, his stomach rumbling softly while he planned out what to make for dinner. Vanya and Five had gone out shopping the day before, and Diego was certain he could scratch together a decent enough meal.

He rounded the corner and suddenly stopped in his tracks. The kitchen lights were on, too bright in the dark hallway Diego stood, and when he strained his ears, heard the shuffling of feet and a soft mutter of someone talking. He briefly wondered if Grace was awake, but quickly dismissed it; it was almost 2am and Grace was programmed to turn off at midnight every night, there was no reason for her to be up.

No one should be awake, he had bid his siblings good night when they each retreated to their bedroom to rest, leaving Diego sharpening his knives and idly listening to his police scanner until the early morning.

His shoulder tensed, carefully reaching up to his harness, about to pluck out one of his knives. ready to throw with a simple flick of his wrist when there was a sudden laugh, and Diego immediately deflated, failing to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

Klaus’ laugh was as distinctive as they come, confident and loud, and Diego huffed, moving towards the kitchen, silently, ready to tell off Klaus for disappearing out of the blue that afternoon, but Klaus apparently wasn’t alone.

“How about this?” There was a pause, and the fridge door was slammed shut “Well it’s better than the alternative, sweetums.”

Klaus was eccentric and enjoyed calling anyone funny little nicknames, including his siblings, and Diego wondered if he was talking to Ben or not, but then again, Klaus wasn’t very keen of chatting to the other ghosts around him.

He stopped outside the kitchen door, body turned to press his back against the wall, not wanting to make his appearance known. There was a scraping of a chair, a sound of something metal being placed on the table, and then another chair being pulled. Klaus dropped into the seat with a sigh, popping open a can as he murmured something before finally speaking back up, as boisterous as ever “I’m not going to even pretend I don’t miss it, all of it” Klaus sighed again, the sound of a plastic bag shuffling before his brother continued “They’re still too loud and too much…but If It means I get to see you, I suppose it’s worth it.”

Diego decided to peak over the door frame, and Klaus was too caught up to notice Diego. He was sitting at the end of the table, facing the kitchen counter, lanky legs crossed in his seat as he stared ahead with an odd look on his face. There was a can of cola, unopened, in front of the empty spot, with the chair in front pulled back for someone to sit in. Klaus took a sip of his own drink before turning to the styrofoam contain in front of him. He flipped it open with a grin, an empty plastic bag with some diner’s name printed on it in bright pink letters laid abandon to his side.

He dug in, picking up a large waffle dripping in syrup and took a too large of a bite, swaying in his seat as he hummed happily “Fuck it sucks you can’t eat, these are the best waffles, hands down.”

There was a soft creak of wood, and Klaus grew silent before scoffing “Hey I could either eat an unhealthy amount of sugar, or I can go back to drugs.”

Silence.

“Mm, I don’t think I can give up waffles, even the shitty frozen ones” Klaus huffed “You got a good point.”

“Klaus?” Diego finally had enough of watching his brother talking to a blank space. Klaus suddenly tense, head swinging around as the waffle dropped back into its container, blinking owlishly at Diego as he stepped into the kitchen “Is Ben here?”

Klaus pulled a face, mouth opening and closing as he seemed to think over his answer “I think…I last saw him in my bedroom, why? Did you want to talk to him?”

“No” Diego’s eyes shifted back to the empty chair “Who are you talking to?”

Klaus shifted back in his seat and looked ahead, expression blank for a moment again, but then quickly spun around in his chair to flash Diego a grin.

“How rude of me!” He spoke cheerfully, gesturing towards the space ahead and flashing his HELLO tattoo “Dearest brother, meet Dave, Dave this is my second favourite sibling Diego, he thinks he’s cool.”

“I am cool” Diego huffed, and Klaus giggled away to himself, beaming at where the empty- at Dave.

“Dave…as in _Dave_ Dave?”

Klaus found that very amusing, stifling his grin behind a hand, flashing off his chipping black nails “What other Daves would I be talking to?”

“I thought you-” Diego paused suddenly, a frown frozen on his face as he stared at his brother carefully. He looked the same really, still too skinny and pale with smudged eye liner and obnoxious outfits, but the longer he stared, the more he noticed that he seemed more relaxed, his fingers dancing on the table but not in the uncontrollable twitchy way he once did, in the way you do when you have a song stuck in your head, and not counting down the seconds until your next fix “You’re sober?”

Klaus’ shoulders fell, eyes flickering back and forth between Diego and Dave and Diego couldn’t ignore the look of disappointment in his eyes. He sighed, before shrugging, the easy smile back on his face “I said I was didn’t I?”

“But that was when the world was gonna end.”

“Yeah” Klaus scratched at the back of his head uncomfortably “Well I needed to clean up my act, for Ben, and Dave. I need to be able to see them.”

There was a stiff silence that hung above their heads, and Diego wondered if he could just run around and go back to his room and pretend he was never here. But Klaus wasn’t high as a fucking kite and he doubted that would work. Again.

“Besides, did you see what I did at the theatre? Give me a few weeks and I bet you daddy dearest’s inheritance that I can beat up Luther!” Despite Klaus’ many flaws, his inability to be apart of a serious conversation and his need to joke around was welcomed by Diego at that very moment. Diego simply rolled his eyes and strolled to the fridge, cracking it open and shuffling through its contents, eager to slip into a more light-hearted chat.

“So where were you this afternoon? Five was looking for you.”

“Oh, shit” Klaus flinched “I forgot he- did he get pissy?”

“Called you an idiot and went to sulk in his room, nothing too dramatic” Diego shrugged, crouching down in as he pulled out an expired carton of milk and glared at the expiration date in disgust “He’ll cool down tomorrow.”

Klaus nodded, taking a loud sip of his drink and returned to his waffles, the sweet stickiness of the syrup covering his fingers as he watched Diego shuffle through the shelves before opening his mouth, only to get cut off by Dave reminding him not to talk with his mouth full because he’ll choke again.

“I thought Vanya and Five went shopping?”

Diego turned his head as Klaus dabbed a cheap napkin at his mouth in an attempt to clean himself up “They only went to pick up something for dinner before Vanya got all panicky and broke some jars. Apparently one of the cashiers was giving her a weird look. Had to leave pretty quickly after that.”

Diego huffed, because what else did he expect, and made a mental note to leave the grocery shopping to him or Allison. At least they had some sense to get the basics, and grabbed a half-empty pack of ham “Did they at least get bread?”

Klaus nodded, pointing towards the bread bin before finishing off his waffle with one large bite. His eyes flickered away and Klaus, through a mouthful of waffle, grunted “I’m not gonna choke” He then frowned, quickly swallowing “Sorry.”

Diego dropped the pack of ham and an almost empty tub of butter onto the kitchen counter, going over to the bread bin and grabbing the freshest thing inside as Klaus began to speak softly, his tone light and giggly. Diego didn’t say anything, letting his brother chat to his dead boyfriend without interrupting. As he finished spreading butter on two slices of bread, Diego noticed that Klaus had drifted into silence, and when he glanced over his shoulder, found Klaus fiddling with his napkin, tearing it into small strips and letting them fall into the empty container.

“Where did you go today?” Diego questioned as Klaus looked up to eye the ghost in front of him.

“Didn’t want to stay in the house all day so I took my lovely Dave here out about town” Klaus said stiffly, and Diego wondered if that was what he had really been up too, but didn’t interrupt “Then I got hungry and figured me and Dave could have a lovely little dinner date! Didn’t realize how late it was.”

“Good to know you weren’t getting into trouble.”

Klaus shook his head “I wouldn’t do that to Dave.”

His eyes suddenly flickered towards the corner of the room, a darkened corner of the kitchen. Klaus squinted his eyes and pulled a face “-And Ben.”

Diego looked at the corner “Is he here now?”

Klaus didn’t answer him, instead pointing his finger at the empty space, as if he was scolding a child “Where were you all day? Wondering off without a word like… well me!.”

A pause.

“Ah” Klaus looked back at Diego “Seems he was hanging around with you guys earlier.”

His brother froze “Wait, he can do that? Like, still exist even if you’re not around?”

He nodded, packing away the styrofoam and his now empty can away to throw in the trash “Course, the dead are everywhere, they don’t need me to creep on people. Ben says Hi by the way.”

Klaus winked at the corner just as Diego finished up his dinner, shuffling back to the fridge to grab whatever drink he could find.

“If I had known you were still up I would have brought you back something” Klaus perked up, gesturing to the empty container. Diego pulled a face.

“I’d pick nothing over that thank you” He sneered and Klaus shrugged it off, muttering about how he didn’t deserve any anyway under his breath as he pushed the container away. He cleaned away the space in front, leaning forward, arms folding in front of him and resting his head against them.

“Don’t you want to eat, I don’t know, actual food?”

“I’ve survived this far, why stop now?” Klaus stuck out his tongue childishly “Beats your dinner.”

Diego turned to eye the sad looking sandwich in front of him, and Diego couldn’t say he would disagree, but he didn’t speak up as he grabbed a plate from a cupboard and finished up preparing his food. He pushed the dirty chopping board and knife into the sink to be dealt with later that morning.

“Go to bed soon okay? We're supposed to be up early to help Vanya tomorrow before one of her lessons.”

Klaus waved him off “Of course dear brother, wouldn’t want to miss it. Tschüss!”

Diego nodded in Klaus’ direction, sparing a glance at the empty seat and then the dark corner. He turned, leaving the kitchen and walked down the dark hallway, listening to Klaus’ excitable chatter fade behind him, his words too hush to be completely audible. Diego doubted that Klaus would take his advice, but decided leaving Klaus alone to chat away happily to ghosts wasn’t the worst thing he could be doing.

**Author's Note:**

> Damn did I fall hard for TUA; Klaus, Ben, Diego and Five? Just *kisses fingers* superb funky lil bois
> 
> I haven't read the comics, but I know for a fact my sister has the first two, so hopefully, I can sneak them away soon and maybe they'll inspire me to write me :v
> 
> I haven't written anything for a while, so I suppose I'm a bit rusty, so apologies for any mistakes in my spelling/grammar, Kudos and comments are all greatly appreciated!


End file.
